Astral Cafe: AvPvNCIS
by gryphonfg
Summary: Rook from the Astral Cafe becomes the center of an NCIS investigation when Predators start killing marines. Meanwhile, Tony DiNozzo is the agent afloat on a secret navy mission to recover aliens from the ocean.


Lance Corporal Jackson and two of his squadmates left the bar together. They had had a few drinks, but could still walk a straight line. They headed down the block to where they had parked. Even though it was well after dark, the night was sweltering.

The sharp report of gunfire sounded above them. A man in a denim jacket, white shirt, and red tie fell from the roof and crashed into the roof of a car. A pistol fell from his hand.

Jackson walked over and picked up the handgun. His two companions flanked him. The man on the car roof groaned and pulled himself up.

"Stay down," Lance Corporal Jackson shouted.

"Run," the man groaned.

A net caught one of the marines and pinned him to a wall. The wires making up the next cut into his skin as it pulled itself taut. A ball of fire shot out of thin air and hit one of the other marines in the chest, burning it away. Upon seeing what happened to his companions, Jackson turned and ran. A pair of blades stabbed him in the back and lifted him off his feet.

The man rolled off the car. He tumbled past the dying marine and grabbed the gun that had fallen from his hand. He fired off another few rounds at the invisible attackers and started running again.

Florescent green blood dripped from the wounds of one of the invisible attackers onto the sidewalk. A blade appeared in the air and sliced the heads off of each of the marines.

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs sat at his desk in the large squadroom of NCIS headquarters. Agent Timothy McGee sat at a desk across from him typing away at his computer. Agent Ziva David sat at her desk next to Gibbs. She was talking to someone on the phone. Agent Tony DiNozzo was not at his desk. He had gotten pulled away for a special assignment.

The phone at Gibb's desk rang. He picked it up, listened briefly, and then hung up.

"Grab your gear. We have three dead marines."

Gibbs got up and pulled his sidearm and badge from the top drawer of his desk. The other two agents quit what they were doing, grabbed their bags, and hurried after Gibbs.

Gibbs and his team met the Medical Examiner Donald Mallard and his assistant at the crime scene. The sidewalk and a car with a crushed roof had been roped off by the local police. The group took their gear under the cordon and examined the scene. Ziva used a camera to photograph everything. McGee talked to the local police to see what they had learned.

Three dead bodies lay on the sidewalk. The medical examiner knelt by one of them with a liver probe.

"What do you have for me, Ducky?" Gibbs asked.

"Time of death is about six to ten hours ago. As for cause of death, I won't be able to tell you until I get them on the table."

"Boss," McGee said. "The local LEOs reported to a call about shots fired when they found the bodies. There are some shell casings over there. And there is a strange substance near the bodies. There aren't any cameras on this block and there were no witnesses. Most likely, the marines had left a bar that is around the corner."

"Bag and tag them, McGee. What do you make of this car?"

McGee looked at the car. Something had crushed the roof.

"Could something have been thrown off the roof and then carried away?"

Gibbs found a way to the roof of the building. It was a twenty foot drop the ground. A search of the rooftop revealed three more shell casing. He called Ziva up to photograph them and then bagged them.

The bodies were loaded into a ME van and taken back to NCIS headquarters. Ziva and McGee had bagged up all the evidence. Gibbs took a final walk through of the crime scene. His gut told him that he was missing something. He drew a map in his head. There was the roof with the shell casings, the crushed car, the dead bodies, the other shell casings. It all formed a line. He decided to follow the line and see where it went.

Ziva and McGee saw Gibbs walking away and followed after him. They had learned better than to question their boss's instincts.

Gibbs found a few more drops of the strange green liquid from the crime scene. Further on, they found a warehouse. The door was recently busted open. Gibbs motioned for his team to be ready and went in with his gun out.

The three of them cleared the first floor of the warehouse and went upstairs. At the top of the staircase there were signs of a struggle. The walls of the hallway had cut marks and there were more bullet casings and drops of blood. The trail of blood led further down the hall. Gibbs opened the door by the top of the stairs. Inside was a man in denim jacket, white shirt, and tie sitting on the floor against the back wall. He looked beat up, but he had a pistol aimed at the door.

"Drop the gun," Gibbs ordered.

"Who are you?" the man demanded.

"NCIS, now drop the gun."

The man set the gun on the floor and slid it across the room to the door.

McGee and Ziva moved into the room on either side of the man. They pulled the man to his feet and handcuffed him.

Self-proclaimed Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo sat in the NCIS office on the USS Bull Run. He crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it into the trashcan like a basketball. The voyage had been uneventful. The mission was top secret and he had been chosen because of his previous top secret assignments. The ship had been racing to the mid Atlantic for some unknown reason. In the middle of the night they stopped.

An alarm sounded throughout the ship. Tony jumped to his feet and grabbed his sidearm. It took only a moment to learn that something had happened in the sick bay.

Tony ran through the ship and found several marines inside. Two more stood out front of the door and kept everyone else out.

"What happened?" Tony asked.

"Don't worry about it, sir," a marine sergeant said. "It's under control."

Tony looked past the marines and saw a dead body in the sick bay.

"Who died?"

"This doesn't concern you, sir," the sergeant said. "Please return to your office."

Tony realized that he was not getting past the guards and returned to his office. However, he did not let that stop him from doing some old fashioned detective work.

Over the next few days, Tony discovered that one of the men who secured the mysterious cargo the ship recovered had been infected and then died in sick bay. Since then two other sailors had died the same way. He managed to get a good look at one of the bodies before the marines chased him off. It looked like the sailor's chest exploded.

The door slid open with a hiss as Agent Gibbs entered the morgue. Ducky stood over one of the three mutilated corpses as he worked on his autopsy.

"What do you have for me, Ducky?"

"A lot, I'm afraid," Ducky replied in his British accented voice. He took off his gloves and stepped over to the first autopsy table. "This one was stabbed in the back with two, long, parallel, serrated blades. This damaged the lungs and heart and would have been the fatal wound." He moved on to the next table. "The chest was incinerated. I have no idea what could have done that, but it was fast and mostly the cause of death. The third one was the worst. The crosscut lacerations were antimortem and happened at the same time. It was like he was trapped in a net of a very thin wire that was pulled over him with great pressure so that it dug into the skin. However, the fatal wound was this stab wound through the chest. It was likely by some sort of spear. All three of them were decapitated postmortem, see there is no hemorrhaging along the cuts."

"So three dead marines were killed by a variety of different weapons. Did you find any traces in the wounds?"

"No. Strangely enough all the wounds were clean."

"Why would they cut off their heads?"

"There are some cultures that take the heads of their enemies as trophies. Why, I remember my time-"

Ducky turned as saw Gibbs walking out of the morgue. He took the elevator up to the lab where the perky, goth forensic expert worked. A long table held the prisoner's haversack and dozens of other items including a long spear with a blade shaped like flames.

"What's all this, Abs?" Gibbs asked as he handed Abby a giant plastic cup of Caf-Pow.

"This all came from the bag," Abby replied excitedly. "I don't understand it, but the inside of this bag is larger than the outside. Much larger. It's scientifically impossible, but it's right here in front of me."

Gibbs was unfazed by the impossibility.

"Ducky said that one of the marines was killed by a spear."

"I already checked that. There is evidence of blood on the spear, but none of the DNA matches the victims. There were several strains of DNA on the spear, too. Some of them badly degraded. Also, the shape of the head doesn't match the wound. The spear that killed the marine was a narrow spike, this one is a wide, flat blade."

"What about the neon green liquid from the scene?"

"That is another amazing piece of evidence! I think it's blood."

"But it's green."

"Exactly. See, our blood is red because of the iron in the hemoglobin. This blood has something else in it that gives it the color and the luminosity. I'm still running tests on the sample, but this could be some sort of alien's blood."

"What about the shell casings found on the scene?"

"They do match the gun. Not too many people use 10mms these days."

"Thanks Abby."

Gibbs left the lab and headed to interrogation. He had left the man from the scene in there for a while to work himself up with worry. Gibbs opened the door and found the man sitting back in his chair with his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head. Gibbs went around the table and slammed the investigation folder on the long, black table. The man put his feet on the floor and sat up. Gibbs laid out pictures of the three dead marines.

"Tell me what happened last night," Gibbs said.

"Not much to say, those guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"They were marine force recon. I want to know what killed them."

"I'm guessing that if I say that some sort of alien, you probably wouldn't buy it."

"I am not playing games!" Gibbs slammed his hand down on the table. "I have three dead marines and your brass at the crime scene. If you don't tell me the truth, you're going down for all of it."

"I'm not playing games either. I'm sorry, but I just can't give you any answers that you'll like."

"Let's start with something easier. Like who you are."

"I'm sure that you've already run my prints and found out that my name is Amadeus Rook. You're next question is probably going to be where I've been for the last ten years. Once again, it's one of those answers that you probably won't like. All I can really say is that I've been away. I'm sure that your forensics person can tell you that I've been somewhere pretty far from here."

The door to the interrogation room swung open and three men in black suits and sunglasses barged in.

"Who are you?" Gibbs shouted.

"You don't need to know," one of the men said. "We're taking this man into custody."

"Like hell you are!"

"Stand down, this is above your pay grade."

Director Leon Vance pushed into the room.

"Sorry Gibbs, this is out of our hands."

Gibbs just stood back as two of the suited men pulled Rook out of the room. The third man picked up Gibb's file and took it with them.

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked after the last man left.

"I'm not sure. I got a call from SECNAV to let them take over this case."

"Who are they? CIA?"

"I don't know. I don't like other agencies pushing in on my territory. I'm going to make some calls."

Vance and Gibbs followed the agents to the briefing room where three others joined them. One of them had a box of evidence. Abby was following them and shouting at them angrily. When she saw Gibbs, she hurried over to him.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, these guys just came in to the lab and took all the evidence. They won't say who they are."

"I know," Gibbs said as he touched her shoulder. "Go back to the lab. I'll see what I can do."

Abby nodded and left the squad room.

The lights went out. Rook moved fast and disabled the agents. He slammed one face first into the elevator doors. He kicked another in the side of the knee. A leg sweep took a third one down and an axe kick to the gut kept him down. In a matter of seconds he was the only one standing.

A six bladed disc appeared in the air and flew towards Rook. He tumbled out of the way and it punctured the elevator door. Rook put his arms around the weapon and used it to slice the chain on his handcuffs. With his hands free, he yanked the weapon out of the door and threw it at the blur standing on one of the desks in the middle of the squad room. The blade sliced through something and florescent green blood dripped onto the floor.

Feeling something behind him, Rook jumped to the side as a pair of long, serrated blades slashed through where he had been standing.

During the chaos, Gibbs crawled to his desk and pulled out his sidearm. He saw a ripple in front of the windows. Gibbs fired three shots in rapid succession. A seven foot tall, green skinned creature materialized. Florescent green blood leaked from three bullet wounds in its torso. A triangle of laser sights from the creature's mask targeted Gibbs. A cannon mounted on the creature's shoulder followed the lights. Rook tackled the creature through the window. Two more blurs followed them through the window.

Rook used the creature to cushion his landing and then rolled away. He got to his feet and starting running. He heard the footsteps behind him.

"What the hell is going on?" Gibbs demanded.

He stood in the Director's office. Vance sat behind his desk and one of the suited men stood with his hands folded behind his back.

"That's above your pay grade," the suited agent replied.

"Then you had better read me in because your secrets killed two guards and wrecked my briefing room."

"I think you should read them in, too," Rook said as he slipped into the room.

"How did you get in here?" Vance demanded.

"I had some training to infiltrate buildings a while back. It comes in handy. I'm here to remand myself back to NCIS custody. And don't worry about the aliens, I'm pretty sure I lost them, at least for the next few hours."

"You're no longer NCIS's concern," the suited man said. "You're ours."

"I have no idea who you even are, so I cannot in good conscious turn myself over to you. Also, you couldn't even get me to their elevator. And if I hadn't beaten you guys up, those things would have probably killed you. I've noticed that they only go after people they see as threats. They ignored that girl with the pigtails. But they turned on Agent Gibbs here when he fired his gun. My guess is that's why they killed those marines, they acted threatening. And I guess I'm just the most elusive game of them all."

"So you think they tracked you here and came in to kill you because they lost you in the warehouse?" Gibbs asked.

"Got a better idea?"

"My task force is specially designed for this case. You need to come with us for debriefing and protection."

"Like I said, I have no idea who you are, so I don't see why I should let you debrief me. And I obviously don't need your protection. However, I would appreciate it if you gave me back my stuff."

"Your stuff is now our evidence in this case."

"Really? Then let me see your warrant."

"We don't need a warrant. This is-"

"Don't try to say that it's above my pay grade. Director Vance, this man and his accomplices have confessed to taking my possessions without a warrant. I am sure that you're aware that constitutes illegal search and seizure. I will therefore defend my rights with every fiber of my being."

"Fine, we'll give you back your property" the man said. "However, we're keeping the rest of the evidence."

"Thanks. I think we're finished here. You can go."

The suited agent looked confused at being dismissed. Obviously it was not something he was used to. Seeing the glares from Gibbs and Vance, he left the room.

"Now why don't you tell us everything you know?" Vance said.

"That's a long story. We're not alone in the universe. I was abducted years ago and spent my time traveling amongst the stars. I've meet Krell, Hyperians, Time Lords. I'm not sure where these green ones come from. I've met them once before and they were bad news. We've nicknamed them predators because of their focus on hunting down the biggest, toughest things around."

"You expect us to believe that you were abducted by aliens?"

"Do you have a better explanation for my disappearance and my bag?"

Neither Vance nor Gibbs said anything for a moment.

Vance finally broke the silence. "What happened last time you ran into these aliens?"

"A lot of people died before a friend of mine and I managed to stop them. However, they were sore losers and set off a small nuke."

"If this is true, then this just got a lot worse," Gibbs said.

"Okay then. Now that that's settled, let's talk about those guys." Rook pulled out an ID card and tossed it on Director Vance's desk. "I picked it up when I knocked them out. Those guys are Majestic-12. I didn't even realize that they really existed, but I guess they do. They're after the aliens and all of their secrets."

Tony huddled in the small room aboard the ship. He had barricaded the door with a metal cabinet to stop the creatures from getting in. He could hear scratching on the other side of the door. The creatures were persistent.

He had spent the last several hours trying to hook his phone up to the ship's communication systems. The room he was hiding in was in the middle of the ship. There was too much metal around him to get a good signal. He was starting to wish that McGee was there. His technical skills would have been useful.

Finally his phone showed him a signal. Tony dialed the one number he knew would get results.

"Gibbs," the familiar and seldom happy voice said.

"It's Tony. Boss, I got a major problem here. Whatever the crew was looking for, well, they found it and it's killed all of them. The ship is crawling with these strange creatures. I've barricaded myself into a room, so I'm safe for now. I shot up one of the creatures and it's blood melted a hull in the deck. With no crew, the ship is coasting. There's no one to stop it from running aground and the creatures will get loose."

"Hang tight, DiNozzo. We'll get you out of there."

"That's about all I can do, boss."

Tony ended the call. He kept his pistol aimed at the door in case the creatures broke through.

Gibbs stood in MTAC. The main screen showed a feed from a Black Hawk helicopter approached the USS Bull Run. He watched two teams of Navy SEALs deployed onto the deck and into the superstructure in the middle of the ship. One team went towards the bridge while the other went towards engineering.

A minute after they entered the ship, Gibbs heard the sound of gunfire over the radio. The SEALs started calling back and forth. They were under attack. He saw one of the SEALs make it back to the deck. He fired back into the doorway and then turned and ran for the helicopter which was hovering above the deck. A dark shape sprang from the doorway and tackled him to the ground. The SEAL struggled and then went limp.

Someone on the helicopter called all the team members, but none of them responded. He then ordered an abort and the helicopter flew away.

Gibbs tore off his headset and threw it on the floor.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," Rook replied from the back of the room. "It's not like the ones we've already met. It also doesn't appear to be terrestrial. My guess is that it's another alien race."

"And my agent is out there in the middle of it."

Gibbs turned and stormed out of MTAC.

Gibbs and Rook entered the laboratory. Heavy metal music was blaring while a woman with black pig tails, a dog collar, and a white lab coat worked on a computer. Gibbs walked over and turned off the music. The woman spun around.

She was about to say something, however upon seeing Gibbs she smiled. "Gibbs." She then saw Rook with his haversack slung over his shoulder. "Is that the bag?!"

"Yes it is. Abby, meet Rook."

"I have some many questions for you. Where did you get that bag? How does it work? Is it some sort of folded hyperspace?"

"Nice to meet you, Abby," Rook said. "I'm not sure how it works. I got it a while back from a distant world. I was in a rush to get away and didn't get a user manual."

"Did you learn anything about the green samples before they took the evidence?" Gibbs asked.

"No, the samples were still running through mass spec when they took it. I still think its some sort of alien blood."

"It is."

"Was that what happened in the squad room? Did the aliens appear?"

"Yes. And they bled green. They also can turn invisible. Any idea how they can do that?"

"Without seeing it happen? No. They could have evolved so that they can turn their entire body transparent."

"It's some sort of device they use," Rook said. "Water disrupts it. And when I hit it with the disk it became visible for a second."

"If it has something like that, then its way beyond any technology on Earth. The military has been experimenting with fiber optics to capture the light on one side of an object and emit it again on the other side so that it becomes invisible."

"Can you come up with something that could shut it off?" Gibbs asked.

"If their technology operates anything like on Earth, then an EMP could turn off their cloaking device."

"Yeah, they're easy to make. It'll only have one shot and won't have much range though."

"Do it."

Gibbs and Rook stood on a rooftop. The waterfront was in sight a couple blocks away. They had been standing there since the sun had set an hour before. Neither one of them spoke during that time.

Both men sensed something behind them and turned around. Their hands hung at their side in order to appear nonthreatening.

Three tall, green aliens faded into view at the other end of the roof. The one in the center stood taller than the others and the mask it wore bore several scars while the masks of the other two were pristine.

The two groups sized each other up, but none of them reached for a weapon.

"We'd like to propose a truce," Rook said. "You like to hunt it seems and I think we found a prey worthy of you."

Gibbs slowly pulled out a picture of the creature from the ship, took a step forward, and extended it to the predators.

The aliens exchanged glances, then one of them stepped forward and took the picture. All three of them examined it.

"Truce," the center predator said mimicking Rook.

"There is a ship full of them on its way here," Gibbs said. "We have twelve hours before the navy sinks it. I still have a man on board. I can get the five of us out there. You can hunt to your hearts' content and I'll save my agent. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal," the center predator mimicked.

"That's good enough for me," Rook said. "Let's go."

Gibbs, Rook, and the three predators approached a Black Hawk helicopter that Majestic 12 had provided for them after some convincing, along with a pilot. Agents McGee and Ziva were standing in front of the helicopter. Both of them drew their guns at the sight of the predators. Rook put himself in front of the predators to prevent them from attacking.

"Lower your weapons," Gibbs ordered.

Ziva and McGee hesitated for a moment, then obeyed.

"What are you are doing here?" Gibbs asked.

"You're going after Tony," Ziva said. "We're going with you."

Gibbs sized up his agents for a second.

"Get on the helo," Gibbs ordered.

Ziva and McGee obeyed and climbed into the helicopter. Gibbs followed them. Rook motioned for the predators to follow him into the helicopter as well.

During the trip to the ship, Ziva and McGee watched the predators closely. Gibbs leaned back and rested. Rook tried to talk to the predators, but the aliens remained stoically silent.

The pilot announced that they were approaching the ship. The agents and Rook readied their gear. The three NCIS agents strapped on protective vests and then slapped clips into their M4 carbines.

"DiNozzo is below deck, mid-ship," Gibbs called out. "We need to get to him and clear a path back to the helo. Expect heavy resistance."

Rook put his haversack on the floor and pulled out an M240 machine gun.

"Watch my back," Rook said. "I'll take care of our front."

Rook took point as they climbed out of the helicopter. The three agents followed behind him. They kept watch on all sides. The three predators jumped out of the helicopter and activated their cloaking devices. Once everyone had disembarked, the helicopter flew away from the ship.

The inside of the ship was dark. Each one of the agents had a light affixed to their guns. Rook clipped an angle headed flashlight to the breast pocket of his denim jacket.

As soon as the group was through the door by the helipad they found themselves face to face with the creatures. Numerous black creatures with eyeless, elongated heads ran on four legs down the hall, along the walls, and even across the ceiling. Lipless mouths opened to reveal needle like teeth.

Rook opened fire with his machine gun. A continuous spray of bullets tore through creatures as they raced forward. Rook swept his gun back and forth in order to cover all the angles. None of the creatures reached them. When Rook let go of the trigger, a score of dead bodies littered the hallway. The blood from the creatures dissolved the metal floor.

"What is that?" Ziva exclaimed.

"Acidic blood," McGee observed.

The floor in front of them gave fell apart as the acid ate through all the supports.

"We need to find another way around," Gibbs said.

The team backed out onto helipad and found a path around the edge of the ship to another entrance to the structure. They proceeded a distance into the ship without incident.

"Behind us," Gibbs called out.

Ziva and McGee turned around. Gibbs and them fired three round bursts into several creatures that were coming at the group from behind. Rook continued to move forward. They could not stop moving or they would get surrounded.

The group reached an intersection. Creatures were coming from straight ahead and from one of the side halls. Rook fired down one hallway and then the other.

"Turn," Rook called over the gun fire and led the team down the clear hallway.

The corridor led to a stairwell. Gibbs aimed up while Ziva aimed down. Rook took over the position of rearguard and opened fire on the creatures chasing them. The stairwell was clear.

Ziva and Gibbs started down the stairs. The M240 ran out of ammunition. Rook tossed it aside and drew his 10mm. He had preloaded it with his dragon's tooth bullets. A fireball filled the corridor and burned the creatures.

McGee followed his coworkers into the stairwell. A long, thin, segmented tail descended from the upstairs. The tail ended in a razor sharp blade. It reared back to strike McGee in the back. Rook caught the tail. McGee noticed what happened and let out a yell. The creature crawled down the side of the stairwell and pounced on Rook.

"Move it!" Rook yelled to McGee.

McGee ran down the stairs after the others.

Rook looked up at the creature. It opened its mouth. A smaller mouth on the end of a cylindrical tongue emerged and aimed at Rook's head. He jerked his head to the side as it lashed out with the inner mouth. Rook used his martial arts training and tossed the creature off of him. It's natural agility matched his finely honed speed and both were on their feet at the same time. The creature whipped its tail at him. Rook dodged the tail and fired another dragon's tooth shot. The fireball roasted the creature alive. However, numerous more were behind it.

The tactic of divide and conquer came to Rook's mind and he took the stairs up as fast as he could. The creatures swarmed after him.

Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee worked their way down the corridor. The swarm of the creatures that had been following them disappeared after the stairwell. They found a few stray creatures in the lower levels and dealt with them quickly.

They reached the room that Tony was hiding in. A few more creatures were near the door. Gibbs fired short, controlled bursts that dispatched most of them. Ziva and McGee finished off the rest.

Gibbs banged on the door.

"Who's there?" Tony called out.

"Me," Gibbs called back.

"Just a moment."

There was the sound of something metal being drug away from the door, the click of the lock, and then the door opened. Tony looked tired and dirty, but he kept his pistol level as he peaked out of the door. When he saw Gibbs and the others, he lowered his gun.

"Glad to see you, boss."

"Let's get back to the helo," Gibbs said. "We can't go back the way we came. We've killed a lot of them on the way here, so the passage ways will be unstable."

"There is a stairwell on the other side of the this deck that will take us to a hall that runs to helipad," Tony said.

"Let's head out," Gibbs said.

The predators made their way to the lowest levels of the ship. Large puddles of water covered the floor. The water disabled their cloaking devices.

The creatures on the ship converged on the predators. Blasts from their shoulder cannons, their throwing disks, and explosive darts from their bracers kept their path clear. One of the predators fired his net and pinned one of the creatures to the bulkhead.

A creature crawled out of a vent after the predators walked by. It lashed out with its tail and ran one of them through. The predator turned around and blasted it with his cannon. Three more creatures ran quickly down the hallway. The predators took out two of them before the third one tackled the wounded predator. It put it's inner jaw through the predator's throat as he skewered the creature with his wrist blades.

The predators left their fallen companion and continued to move.

Once Rook was certain that he had pulled most of the creatures away from Gibbs and his team, he changed direction and headed for the missiles. He did not trust the navy to sink the ship like they said and he was going to make sure the creatures died before they reached the mainland.

He took the stairs three at a time and landed with a splash in a puddle in one of the lower levels of the ship. He fired a shot back up and encased the closet creature in ice. It fell from the wall and shattered on the floor. He had replaced his dragon's tooth with permafrost rounds because he was running low. Now that he was under the water line, he put his gun away and drew a taser and his spear. He did not want to risk their acidic blood eating through the hull and sinking the ship while he was still on board.

Rook caught the creature's tail and pulled it from the ceiling. Before the creature could get up, Rook jumped on its back and stabbed it with his spear. The blade ignited and cauterized the wound before it could bleed out.

The lead predator stepped forward. He tore off one of the creature's fingers, then took off his mask. Four mandibles stretched out to reveal a mouth filled with sharpened teeth. There was a mark burned on its cheek, a ritual scarring. He held the finger up to Rook's face. Rook pushed the hand away and opened up his shirt to display numerous scars.

"I have enough markings from my battles. I'd prefer to keep my face intact."

The predator nodded and dropped the finger on the creature's body. He motioned to the other and they continued down the corridor. Rook followed after them since they were heading towards where the missiles were stored.

A dozen creatures poured out of a door fifty feet ahead of them. Both predators fired their plasma casters. They cut down the creatures before they could reach them. The last creature fell to the ground just five feet away from the predators.

The trio pushed through the door. The large room held the launch tube for the missiles. In the middle of the room, surrounded by dozens of translucent eggs, was a twenty foot tall creature. It look similar to the other creatures except for a large crest that protected the covered its head and then flared out to protect its neck and shoulders.

The two predators moved to flank the massive creature when it rose up. The way the creature stood was like a tyrannosaurus. A tube carrying eggs that come out from under her tail fell away. The predators fired their plasma casters, but the shots did not break through her thick carapace.

Rook let them fight their battle as we went over to one of the missiles. He pulled some tools out from his haversack and opened the warhead.

The massive queen swung its long, double jointed arm and knocked the lead predator across the room. It slammed into the rack where Rook was working. Its tail lashed out and cut the other predator in half.

"Okay, I guess you need my help," Rook said.

Rook grabbed his spear and charged the creature. He tumbled to avoid its lashing tail. As he came up, he stabbed the creature in the chest. The spear cut deep into the armor plate covering its chest and was stopped. A pair of smaller arms reached out for him. Rook jumped back.

The predator's razor disk flew past and cut off the smaller arms. The predator jumped after it with a long spear in hand. He aimed for its neck. The creature turned its head and the spear was deflected by the crest. The creature swatted him again. As he flew back, he threw his shuriken at the creature. It's several fan-like blades hit the crest and cracked it.

Rook pulled out his pistol and fired a clip of eldritch bullets into the creature. The bullets cracked the armor over its chest.

The creature lashed out with its arms and tail. It sent pieces of equipment flying across the room. Rook and the predator broke off their attack to dive for cover.

Hiding behind the corner of the missile rack, Rook reloaded his pistol with dragon's tooth bullets. He fired a blast of flames at the queen, but they had no affect.

The predator fired his netgun from the top of the rack. The hooks on the corners chewed into the bulkhead and pulled the metal strands tight across the queen. The creature struggled against the net and tore itself free.

Rook charged the queen again. He fired another dragon's tooth as he ran. Upon reaching the creature, he yanked his spear from its chest. He slashed furiously as he backed away, though he left his right unguarded. A massive hand grabbed him and pinned his arms. The queen lifted him off the ground. It's head with its massive jaws filled with dagger-like teeth emerged from the crest. It opened wide and the inner jaws, the size of Rook's head appeared.

A blast from the plasma caster took the queen in the side of the head and blew her jaws away. Rook pulled himself free of the queen's death grip and went back to the opened warhead. He set a counter in there for ten minutes and then motioned to the predator to run. The two of them headed back to the helipad.

Gibbs and his team was already on the helipad when Rook and the predator arrived. The blackbird carefully descended to pick them up. Everyone rushed into the helicopter and it took off again. As it was clearing the ship, a single creature jumped from the top of the superstructure towards them. Rook and Gibbs both fired a shot and the creature fell away.

The helicopter banked and fled the doomed ship. It had put a mile between them with the warheads exploded and the ship disappeared in a ball of flames. The shock wave hit the helicopter and tossed it about. A moment later it settled down. Behind them, the last flaming remains of the ship sank into the dark water.

The helicopter landed. Gibbs, Rook, and others all climbed out. A dozen men in black suits and sunglasses approached them. Several of the men hand their hands on their holstered pistols. The agent in the lead was the same from NCIS headquarters. He approached the group while the rest of his team formed a circle around the helicopter.

"What did you do?" the lead agent demanded.

"We did our job," Gibbs said.

"We wanted to make sure that those creatures didn't hurt anyone else," Rook added.

"That was not your call."

"Too bad I don't work for you," Rook said.

"Where are the other three aliens?"

"Gone," Gibbs replied.

"We did our job together and they went their own way."

"There is no other land between the ship and here. Do you expect me to believe that they jumped out over the ocean?"

"I don't care what you believe," Gibbs replied.

"Blowing up a billion dollar naval vessel always makes me hungry," Rook said. "Who's up for a late dinner?"

Rook walked past the agent. Gibbs and the others followed him.

"We're not done here," the agent said sharply.

"I think we are," Gibbs said.

The agent yelled at them as they walked away.

The moon was high in the sky as Rook and Gibbs walked up to predator ship that had landed in a national park by Great Falls. Its landing had burned away a grove of trees. As they approached, a hatch on the ship opened up. A thick fog rolled out to meet them.

Inside the hatch was a large, circular room. Several exits went deeper into the ship. Displays of trophies, skulls, lined the walls. The predator from the ship appeared in the middle of the room. He held his retractable spear in one hand.

Rook drew his spear from his haversack and stepped forward to meet his opponent. He nodded an acknowledgment and then slid his right foot back into a fighting stance.

The predator surged forward. The two combatants stabbed, parried, and slashed at each other in a brutal duel. The predator had the advantage of size, strength, and speed, however Rook had been trained to fight by the best.

Rook swept the predator's feet with the end of his spear and then stabbed the blade into the floor by its neck. The predator opened his hand and let his weapon fall to the floor in sign of defeat. Rook took his spear and walked backwards a few steps to give his opponent space to stand up but not insult him by turning his back.

Once the predator stood, Rook approached again with his hand outstretched. The alien looked at him quizzically and then grasped his hand.

"Truce?" Rook asked.

"Truce," the predator mimicked.

The predator took the shuriken off of his belt and gave it to Rook.

Rook nodded to Gibbs. Gibbs hit the button on the EMP that Abby had made. A dozen other predators appeared in the fog as their cloaking devices failed.

"Earth is no longer your hunting ground," Gibbs announced. "If you come back, we will hunt you down. You've seen what we can do."

One of the predators who looked older than the others walked up to Gibbs. He held out an antique revolver.

"Truce," the older predator said.

Gibbs and Rook stood by Gibbs' car and watched the predator ship take off.

"Do you think they'll be back?" Gibbs asked.

"Those particular ones? No. But they will probably go home to planet filled with their kind and tell tales about the ones that got away and others will come here to show them up. Now, I'm hungry. Know any good places to eat that are open at this hour?"

Gibbs continued to watch the retreating ship as it become a pinpoint of light in the sky. He was not sure which worried him more, that the predators might return or that Rook had been calm during the entire incident. Could there be something even worse out there that he had seen?


End file.
